Posts in Graphic Design

1. Initial photo (architectural feature)

2. Cropped and mirrored

3. Cropped and mirrored and layered in Image Blender

1. Initial Photo of some shadows in a corner (taken with Stilla)

2. Cropped and mirrored

3. Final Image layered in Image Blender

1. Initial photo of some stairs

2. Mirrored (you may notice a habit here)

3. Final image layered in Image Blender

The first photos I started using in my designs were simple textures. (we’ve all seen the explosion of texture sites out there) but lately I’ve been using photos to get shapes that typically I would have drawn before. This has been largely driven by having a decent camera in my pocket at all times, allowing me to capture random staircases or light hitting the corner of an architectural feature just right. I find the natural light and texture in photographs have so much more depth in the final product then what I can come up with in photoshop …and its much easier to get to the end result.

Posted by: Seth Hardie
Instagram: @hallwood

Blog and personal favorite visual artist Leif Podhajsky just updated his site recently, and as usual, mind blown!. Most notably: Dan Croll’s ‘From Nowhere’ 7″ artwork (first and second images).

Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey – Digital Catalogue for iPad is an expanded and enhanced version of the printed catalogue published by Unit Editions and the Design Museum to accompany the recent Wim Crouwel exhibition at the Design Museum in London.

The App is more than the just the printed catalogue, it offers a comprehensive overview of the work of the great Dutch master, not only in pictures, but in words as well. The viewer also has access to a filmed interview with Crouwel, a photographic record of the show itself, and a range of animations using the letterforms designed by Wim Crouwel during his long career.

This all-encompassing digital catalogue offers a unique insight into Wim Crouwel’s work and archive, as well as the successful exhibition co-curated by Unit Editions co-founder Tony Brook. It’s a chance to either discover or relive the exhibition.

Editors: Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy
Compatibility: iPad2 & iPad3
Size: 364 MB
Design: Spin
Price: $5.99

Available on the iTunes Store

Dug thru a few sites to make this Japanese Sci-Fi poster collection bigger, anyone else a sucker for airbrush? seems like it took great concentration and a steady hand that doesn’t offer an eraser really. There’s something really romantic about most of these. I can really respect an artist that can create a terrain off the top of his head.

One of the reasons I enjoy creating on my iPhone, is it takes me out of my usual process. The image above I created with Fuzel It’s similar to Grid Lens but lets you make your own slices that you can load up with images. The lines are the slices I made and then I added a tringle to each slice. (I added the clouds with Blender). This is all fairly simple to do in Photoshop with masks but not nearly as simple to manipulate. Being able to tap points and change their size as I’m moving them around feels much more “organic”. I find the results are less forced and there seems to be a more natural progression of the design. I recently switched from a mouse to a tablet which I find much more natural, but you really cant beat direct contact with the screen. Posted by: Seth Hardie Instagram: @hallwood

We have featured some amazing illustrators on ISO50 such as Matthew Lyons and many others, but it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t include the amazing work of Glenn Thomas. Glenn is an illustrator and designer know as “The Fox and King”. I am constantly amazed by his use of texture and light as well as his brush techniques. He is also a top notch animator. Very quality stuff. If you get a minute, make sure to check his work out, you won’t be dissapointed.

Posted by Tav Calico

I’ve just returned returned from a trip to both Munich and London, where I spent time with colleagues in both locations. Cosmic timing really, considering the London 2012 Olympics are on the horizon, and I’ve had Otl Aicher on the mind recently.

Much has been said in recent years about the shortcomings of the London 2012 graphic identity, but I hadn’t really been paying close attention to all the outrage, and had all but forgotten the design work – so I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of Olympic schwag that greeted me at the official London 2012 shop at the St. Pancras Station in London. It’s borderline seizure inducing. Having just stepped off the train from Munich, where I spent time in Olympiapark and was exposed to Aichers work throughout the city, this London 2012 noise was especially jarring. And that mascot! Sigh. I took quite a few pictures, and had originally thought I’d post about Waldi vs Wenlock, but I decided I wouldn’t subject you to any of that madness. After all, this blog is here to celebrate beautiful things.

Scott has extensively covered Aicher’s work for Munich ’72 here before (in fact it’s where I was first exposed to it), but I thought the timing was right for us to be reminded just how amazing a coherent Olympic graphic identity and subsequent merchandising campaign can be.

Creative Review recently posted the above scans of the official Munich ’72 merchandise catalogue, and there are a few images of what look to be the official gift shops as well. While Waldi was the only souvenir that was actually designed by Aichlers studio directly, I find it really impressive how cohesive the entire output of the “Olympic Souvenir” department was. This is most likely due to the fact that Aicher dictated a very strict set of rules as to how the logotype and symbols could be used.

It’s easy to pick apart London 2012 when stacked up against the extremely high bar set by Aicher’s work for Munich, but let’s be real here, remember Izzy from Atlanta? NOTHING is as bad as that. What. Is. That. Thing.

I’m not sure if they entered the competition, but if they did I’d be real curious to see what Bibliotheque came up with for the London 2012 graphic identity. After all, they know a thing or two about Aicher’s legacy, having put together an exhibition of his Munich ’72 work over at the Vitsoe shop in 2007, comprised entirely of posters and print from their their own collection. This unofficial Olympic torch poster they did is pretty amazing as well.

Bonus link: While googling around, I found this site that offers up the official Olympic report books as PDFs. The Munich 72′ books span 3 Volumes, upwards of 1200 pages. For the true Munich ’72 geeks.

Posted by: Rob Fissmer

Caleb Owen Everitt is one of those designers who has such a dialed in style, you can almost instantly recognize his work when you see it. Not to mention, he has some of the coolest clients in the game from Hufnagel to Deus Ex Machina and many more. His work is always a great source of inspiration for me.

Posted by Tav Calico

Its hard not to notice the growing popularity of geometric shapes in design these days. A quick search on Behance and you really cant deny it. My laundry detergent even has a pattern of colored triangles on it (which is probably why I bought it). So at the risk of flooding the design community a little more, I have to share an iPad app I stumbled on the other day. Its called Poly.

Some before and after examples of what the app can do above.

All images by Seth Hardie
Instagram: @hallwood
Poly app Here

Mr. Div is Tumblr I find myself (and apparently 30,000 other followers) visiting quite often, due to the amazing world of Animated GIF’s and Motion Graphics that inhabit within, designed by Matthew DiVito.

I intend to one day hire this man for my show visuals. Above are a few of my personal favorites.